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Give us the money

I had some fun visiting various spots around the States and seeing them all get a slap on the wrist.

A couple of things struck me.

The first and most obvious is the choice of phrase "make the grade". They could have said "how you score" but no – they have set the bar and it's up to the various states to jump over it. It's back to school time – MUST DO BETTER!!

The second thing that struck me was that areas I had assumed to be no-go for smokers failed abysmally. New York? California? I know there is this weird system Over There where cities and towns can pass their own laws independently from the state but I assumed that as San Francisco is one of the least tolerant cities, that California would reflect that. But no – not a single "A" and two fails. Then there is New Orleans where there is a fight on at the moment to ban smoking everywhere in the city, yet Mississippi as a state comes across as an extremely tolerant and smoker friendly state – four Fs. Even New York manages to achieve only one A.

The main thing that gave me a chuckle though was the list of steps to be taken. I didn't visit them all, but all the ones I did visit had one thing in common. It came in various guises but the message is the same in each one –